Changing Domain and Hosting Co.

I need some help

[ganderla]

I have looked at all the previous posts about changing your domain and I am still confused.

I am changing my domain and moving to a different hosting company. Both sites are up an running now and I can keep the old site up forever if I need. I do not want a duplicate content penalty and I want to make sure that I get my good PR transfered over to the new domain.

Everything is ready to go on the new site except getting the visitors over there.
What I need is some guidence on how to make sure the search enging spiders move on over and hopefully make it seemless for the visitors.

I appreciate any suggestions.
Thank you

[jbinbpt]

These are some things that I would check before deciding on how to proceed.

What are the logs on the new site telling you?

Does typing your new URL into google return the new site?

Do you have unique content on the new site to search for?

Do you have any toolbar PR showing?

Answering these things should give you a better idea how how or when to kill the old domain.

jb

[richlowe]

I assume you technically know how to do it.

Just change the IP in the DNS to the new site but keep both running. I would tend to keep the old site up for a couple of months given the freedom to do so. When the logs of the old site show minimum visitors and no more visits from interesting search engines, cut it off. Seems to usually take about a month.

[ganderla]

What are the logs on the new site telling you?

No one has been to the site because it is brand new and I just finished it.

Does typing your new URL into google return the new site?

No

Do you have unique content on the new site to search for?

It is almost the same as the other site.

Do you have any toolbar PR showing?

Not on the new site.

[jbinbpt]

If I understood correctly, the domain names are different. If thats the case I would add a link to the new site on the old site's index page and keep checking your new logs for activity.

Once you have sufficient activity, then proceed.

jb

[ganderla]

Don't I need something like automatic re-directs?

[jbinbpt]

If you are changing domain names, and you want past vistors to follow, I might try this.

Put all your content on the new site and on the old site only have a page explaining the move and offering a link to it. I have seen a lot of pages with a delayed meta-refreash to the new domain, but personally I don't like them.

As for as the redirect, unless the name are very similar, I would ease into it with the explaination page.
My $0.02.

jb

[ganderla]

I think I agree, I will ease into it. It helps that I have a newsletter to announce the move.
I am going from a 30 character domain to a 7 character domain. Much easier to remember and still matches the content.

[vrtlw]

Personally, I think it would be better to do a 301 redirect using .htaccess if at all possible.

Just do a site search on this site for loads of useful threads.

That should transfer PR and visitors seamlesly

Paul